Helping the Addict You Love

Introduction

When I served as the director of Bellevue Hospital's detoxification ward, I often met patients whose lives had been destroyed by addiction. I particularly remember one young man who, in addition to his heavy use of alcohol, smoked more than $100 worth of crack cocaine every day and had been admitted to the hospital in a drunken stupor. Given the life-threatening nature of his addiction, and our experience with individuals with similar stories who had died, our treatment team gave him the "full-court press." In addition to medications, counseling, group therapy, and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, several of us sat down with him and his family and tried to convince him of how much danger he was in, and how important it was for him to change his behavior. But despite our entreaties, he left after four days, telling us that he appreciated our concern and that he would try to cut down his alcohol use, but that he had no intention of stopping his crack cocaine use. In our staff meeting, w ... read full excerpt from: Helping the Addict You Love: The New Effective Program for Getting the Addict Into Treatment ebook